Wulong Mountain Quest
Welcome to Wulong
Rob Howard / 17.09.2009
Wulong is part of a limestone Karst area which covers much of Southeast China and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2007. It has many of the longest and deepest cave systems in China, some as yet unexplored, and as a consequence it is a popular area for caving exploration. Extensive caving sections have featured in every race to date, and will do again this year. Teams have been advised by course Director Peter Weinig the water in the caves will be "relatively cool at this time of the year." He added, "I very strongly suggest taking some clothing that will preserve your core body temperature, like a thin neoprene top or similar. Do not underestimate the loss of heat you will be facing in the cave, even the top teams will be at least 30 minutes underground, a lot of it swimming though water."
The mountains of the region are steep and rugged, rising to their highest in northeast and reaching a high point of 2033m. The area has also seen much climbing and mountaineering activity, and the WMQ began as a mountaineering challenge before developing into an adventure race. (The Chinese Mountaineering Association are part of the organizing team.)
The course this year will include both trail running and mountain biking and Weinig is once again promising something special, including a path cut directly across a 600m vertical cliff face, some long tough climbs, and plenty of views if the weather is good. For the mountain biking the organizers have taken on board comments from competitors and worked hard to seek out a network of singletrack with long uphills and rapid descents. Weinig's comment on this is that some of the trails are very rough and his advice this time is to use the strongest components on bikes! There are no spares available locally ...
The high volume and turbulent Wujiang River runs through Wulong town, and those who have raced here before know how treacherous it can be. Some of them have been swimming in it!. This year a rafting section will descend the river and finish in the town, and this comes after the longest paddling stage of the race which takes place on a reservoir held back by a huge dam.
This will be on day two which has been significantly changed since the original course design as Weinig was caught out by the rapid pace of change in China. Arriving at the Fairy Meadow Plateau 1500m above Wulong, where the race hotel is situated, he found a brand new road. "Where there was nothing but fields 6 months ago during the recce, there are now houses, shops and roads," he said. Then he set about changing his course!
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